✅ SOLVED Industrial Throwing Jacks?

[Sparky the Wonderdog]

My sister sent me this picture of some objects I do not recognize. They belonged to my Mom, who passed some years ago, so I have no real context to them. They are definitely ferrous, as magnets love them. If anyone could help identify these it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Sparky.

 

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[releventchair]

My sister sent me this picture of some objects I do not recognize. They belonged to my Mom, who passed some years ago, so I have no real context to them. They are definitely ferrous, as magnets love them. If anyone could help identify these it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Sparky.

Caltrops perhaps.
Things to step on before Legos..

 

[Sparky the Wonderdog]

I thought maybe caltrops as well, but most of the ones I've seen are like the first in your picture. The four point design would make one point sticking up for maximum damage. I guess maybe six pointed ones could still bruise a hoof or foot.

 

[searcher]

Looks more like grinding/tumbling media for deburring etc.

 

[Tony in SC]

Looks more like grinding/tumbling media for deburring etc.

I would say tumbling media.

 

[Gare]

I think Releventchair hit the nail on the head

 

[Mud Hut]

not caltrops...definitely not caltrops. There are early playing jack, fashioned after the game Jack Stones that look like these, but tumbling media also looks similar to these. If you search "CALTROP" on TNET you will find a gazillion threads about the misidentification of these. "What it boils down to is that there are two schools of thought about these; there are those who insist that these things are caltrops based on hearsay, despite the absence of any documented history, and then there are those who insist that they are not caltrops because there is no documented history to support that theory."

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Searcher and Tony in SC are correct. The objects in Sparky's first photo are absolutely NOT caltrops. A caltrop MUST have only 4 arms, in order to always land on the ground with one arm/spine standing straight upward, to impale a horse's hoof or a soldier's foot. See the illustrations below. The second illustration is from a World War 2 British OSS & SAS manual. Note how the caltrops' "Tetrahedron" geometric shape causes one spine to ALWAYS be sticking straight upward, no matter how it lands when tossed onto the ground.

The 6-arm objects cannot be made to sit with one arm pointing straight up. They are modernday "tumbler media" from a tumbler-mill, used (as Searcher said) for de-burring raw metal castings after they come out of the mold. The ones in Sparky's photo have blunt arms because they are worn-out from too many usings. Search Ebay or the web for "tumbler media" -- and also, "tumbler-mill."

 

[Sparky the Wonderdog]

Thanks everybody for your input. It is greatly appreciated! Marking it Solved.